Last year the Sri Lanka Day festival moved from Santa Monica where, their website claimed, they had 100,000 visitors. Well, there were not that many at the new venue in Pasadena’s Paseo Colorado plaza, although I arrived and left early so more people may have come later. It turned out to be quite unlike most of the street festivals I have attended around Los Angeles.
Of course, there was a Miss Sri Lanka U.S.A.. In fact there were two of them. And dancers? Yes, there were dancers. But not many booths and none of them held the ‘usual suspects’ of the street vendor world. A booth honoring Buddha? Yes, there was one of those. Another booth with a big banner reading “SavingGanesh.org” supported an elephant preservation effort. There was even one selling beachfront condos in Sri Lanka!
And as for the ubiquitous food trucks? They all must have been at the Lotus Festival in Echo Park. Instead three booths served Sri Lankan food and one old-fashioned ice cream truck was parked on Colorado Blvd. near the children’s play area.
The best thing about this event: after all the bloodshed in that country recently, Sri Lanka Day was a wonderful example of how people of various backgrounds can live together.
Here is some of what I saw:
